Jin Eydis
Background I worked in a factory for the past three years. It’s loud and noisy and sometimes when I leave I can’t hear things well, but when I go to sleep the buzzing in my ears stop. I go to school, too, except when I’m in the factory. They say school is the number one priority, but I don’t believe it because they will cancel classes to make sure we meet our quota. I live at home with Mama and Dad and thirteen brothers and sisters. I would list all their names, but it will take too long and you’ll never remember them. I’m in the middle, towards the end, and I have eight older brothers and sisters and five younger ones. There are a lot of mouths to feed, and even though we each use as many tesserae as we dare, none of us has ever gone hungry or been chosen for the Hunger Games. Mama says we have a lucky family. I want to know what’s so bad about these Hunger Games if they help our country. The factory is a good walk from home, but I’m glad I don’t live near it. It spits up ash and debris and makes my oldest siblings cough. They have been working in the factories the longest; if we lived any closer, we’d all be coughing. But there’s another good thing about living away from the factory: we get to see the people of the District as we go. It’s an ugly district I’m told, but it’s the only one I’ve seen. I like it. I don’t like that I’m never clean because the ash doesn’t come out of my clothing, but I like our District 3. Personality I am 4’5” tall, which isn’t tall for a twelve year old and I’m often mistaken for being eight or nine. But I’m stronger than I look . . . I can lift big bags of auto parts by myself, and I can roll giant tires across the floor. Don’t mistake me for being a weakling. I like drawing a lot, and I also like gardening. We have a really small garden and it’s not really anything we can live off of, but Mama sells the herbs we don’t use so that we can buy more food. We can’t grow any really pretty flowers because there’s not much sunlight, but people will pay a lot of money for the ones that do grow. My dad likes to cook, but I haven’t gotten any of his skills. He can turn a pound of potatoes into a fancy meal—well, fancy for us at least. I make sure that he gets the herbs he needs from the garden to flavor the food. My siblings are better at cooking than me. I’m not a fighter, but some of my siblings are. They get into big fist fights and then Dad has to break them up. When they try to pick a fight with me, they usually get what they want. If I let them have it, they let me alone. Then when I really want something, I put up a fight and even if I lose, they let me have it because I don’t fight much. Strengths *Agility and speed. *Greater strength than evident in appearance. *Determination. *Stamina. Weaknesses *No swimming skills. *Lactose intolerant. *Hesitation to commit violence. *Small stature. *Limited outdoors skills.